Speeding tickets

[DeckSwabber]

Fed up with it.

I drive most days. I am a careful driver. But I can't seem to keep my driving licence clean. Every ticket I have had is for exceeding the speed limit on a huge road when there has been very little traffic - not zooming down narrow residential streets or burning it up with the boy racers - just driving a bit faster than normal on a three lane carriageway because there is no traffic and it feels natural to go above 30mph.

So. I've never had more than three point on my licence at any time, but I clear my old penalty points and six months later I get another ticket.

I know its my own fault. But grrr anyway.

I've not had a speeding ticket in nearly 30 years of driving, and I use cruise control almost all the time to try and ensure that I don't, however I think lots of posters are being pompous/pious suggesting it's automatically a safety hazard to exceed the limit.

Lot's of main roads I travel on in and out of London that now have 40 or 50 limits had (if my memory is not playing tricks on me) 60 or 70 limits for many years previously. I do not believe the lower limits make much difference to safety, they are motorway-like roads so intrinsically quite safe whatever the speed limit. I believe the reason for lowering the limits were to reduce emissions, make traffic flow more smoothly at peak times, and, more recently, to reduce stress on elevated sections that were in danger of collapsing. All worthy, but not safety-related.

The A13 heading east/west out of/into London is one particularly absurd road. I only use it at the weekend when it is virtually empty, four lanes in each direction, carriageways separated by a hard barrier, I site in the left-most lane with the cruise control at 40, and virtually every other car does 60 or 70, I can see some of the drivers muttering and swearing as they have to change lanes to overtake me, and frankly, I sympathise with them. I feel like a twat for driving at such a ridiculously low speed.

I have been driving for three months and have a clean license. It is not hard smug

No, it's not automatically a safety concern - but as you rightly point out there are reasons for doing it, which means that as drivers we have to adhere to the limit. It's not up to individual drivers to decide whether or not the road is appropriate for them to do an extra 10 or 20 mph.

So not only do you speed on a regular basis and show poor awareness and concentration in your apparently inadvertent speeding up but you are also apparently a lane hogger on the motorway. Please tell me you don't mean that you always stay in the inside lane , no matter what as I am sick to death of trying to get on my local stretch of motorway and running out of slip road because the ignorant bastards on the inside lane just won't move across and let other drivers onto the motorway. I am not talking about when drivers cant move over because of traffic in the middle lane (don't start me off about middle lane hoggers either ) but those who quite simply don't want to move out of 'their' lane for the entire journey. Grrrr

I have sympathy with you, OP. I do a lot of driving in my job (20,000 miles a year). I see plenty of drivers who will never break the speed limit but are dangerous drivers. I don't think that it's speed that kills, it's inattentive driving. It's that inattention that will kill a child in a 30mph zone. I expect there are inattentive drivers on this thread giving you a good telling off.

I have one set of speeding points - motorway. There are no pedestrians on a motorway.

Speeding isn't good, breaking the law isn't good, there are consequences.

I do love a good flaming thread though...

I have a speed awareness course booked for Wednesday. At this moment in time I believe that it is harsh to have a speed camera at the bottom of the hill, a speed limit of 30 mph on a 3 lane road; not a residential road. I was going 36 at the time I was caught, by the time I got to the top of the hill I was doing 18 mph as the hill is VERY steep and long. If I had been doing 30 mph at the bottom, I would genuinely not have got to the top. It feels like this particular camera is there to make money - lots of people get caught here, rather than genuinely trying to make the road safer, but I am prepared to listen to what they say and take it on board.

YY... they are NOT safety cameras, they are speed cameras. No point dressing it up as anything else. They generate revenue and as soon as they don't, they are removed.

I don't think that it's speed that kills, it's inattentive driving

Really? You don't think that speed plays a part in causing fatal accidents? No part whatsoever?

SirChenjin... how can it? If you are NOT an inattentive driver, you will adjust your speed for the road conditions. I drive far slower than 30mph in residential areas because I know children might pop out at anytime. Would you rather have somebody glued to their speedo, doggedly and smugly sticking to 30, yet not watching/anticipating the road?

If you are an inattentive driver, you might obey the speed limit yet still cause a fatal accident. The speed limit is not a talisman to prevent that.

Ok - it seemed from your earlier post that you were saying that speed is not a contributing factor to fatal road accidents. My apologies if I've misunderstood what you were saying. The fact is that if you are driving appropriately to within the speed limits while paying attention to the road then you will of course reduce the risk of causing injury to others and yourself.

Unfortunately there are too many drivers who over-estimate their abilities and who truly believe that their reactions are so quick that they will be able to take evasive accident if they are driving over the speed limit - whereas speeding reduces your ability to react appropriately and quickly, even if you are paying attention to what's going on around you.

Not at all, SirChenjin. I'm really mindful of speed actually, not just because of the cameras but having been in a car with somebody who drives at the limit but that limit is actually too high for the road conditions. Country lanes terrify me at the speed limit.

If I'm speeding it's generally on a motorway. It's unintentional, it creeps up and seems really slow. I think it's easy to gauge your speed alongside the other traffic and if that's moving quickly, you match it.

I like to think that I'm careful and aware because I'm fully cognisant of the fact that I'm responsible for a tonne of metal hurtling around.

I completely agree. My experience as a result of of driving for 25 years is that there are too many drivers who forget that the speed limit is a maximum, and that in fact they need to drive to the road conditions rather than simply sitting a steady 30/40/60/70.

There are no excuses.

To be fair having blue flashing lights and rushing someone to hospital is an excuse, but generally there are no excuses

Is there a speed camera or is it plod?

There's nothing you can do except comply. I know lots of places with too-low limits and enquiries about them basically get ignored. In many places they are accompanied by speed cameras just to raise revenue. A traces thread on Pistonheads produced a lot of examples of places where limits had been reduced or were clearly U for being too low and ignored by everyone, but no examples of too-low limits being increased.

For instance on the A89 Glasgow Road in Coatbridge (2-lane dual carriageway with roundabouts) a 40 limit was reduced to 30 a couple of years ago because it passed Drumpark School. Fair enough. Except that six months later they shut the school and moved the kids to a site a couple of miles away. The limit however remains at 30 and yes there is a speed camera on the eastbound carriageway.

I also can't drive from Airdrie to Caldercruix within the limit (30 even between the villages most of the way) without being hooted at, flashed and tailgaited.

YABU to exceed the limit but not to complain about the limit if it is clearly stupid.

I drive these roads regularly too - I find a toot back or a one fingered salute is very effective . To be fair though, even on the motorway there's always someone hooting, flashing and tailgating - even when you're doing 70, because that's patently not fast enough for some drivers

I can't seem to keep my driving licence clean cancels out I am a careful driver

I don't exceed the speed limit and constantly have cars pulling out to over take me because obviously the speed limit does not apply to them.

Are you one of those people?

Mrs DeVere you can add my mother to your list if people killed in RTAs. Ruined a family.

Our car has cruise control which I find helps. If the road is quite empty then I just set the car to the speed limit and I don't have to think about it. Perhaps when you get your next car you should look into it?

What's cruise control?

OP, I'm not entirely sure what you hoped to gain from this thread.

I'd rather have an SP30 than a DR10

What's cruise control? Once at the desired speed you can program the car to hold that speed, so you don't have to have your foot on the accelerator.